Women in Design Presents:
Radical Craft

Women in Design Presents:
Radical Craft

Rules are meant to be broken, right? That question is at the heart of the work by architect Débora Mesa Molina. The Madrid-born Molina—principal architect of Ensamble Studio, which is based in Boston and Madrid—walks the fine line between hewing to the rules and engaging in radical experimentation. She is known for creating stunning bespoke architecture out of raw, undervalued materials: For a cultural building in Santiago de Compostela, her firm used scavenged chunks of industrial granite. For her own Cyclopean House, in Brookline, Mass., she turned a cement-block parking garage into a home. 

Molina will talk about how she transforms the imperfect into the perfect and innovates as standard practice becomes obsolete. She will explain how Ensamble Studio pushes the boundaries of architecture from different fronts, discovering untapped opportunities. 

And she will pose challenging questions: How does architecture serve as an active instrument to expand, question, and overcome the norm? What are the risks in moving away from established methods to explore spatial, material, and technological potentialities? And how can architects navigate legal frameworks, define alternative rules, and get other key agents involved, proving that the result is worth the process?

**Women in Design members will receive discounted event pricing – please log into your WID account to receive the promo code for the eventbrite checkout.